Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Finance Minister.
We have been seeing a lot of green shoots, if I can use that term, in the Canadian economy. Today we had the housing starts data come out. We hit a 10-year high, with strong housing activity out west in B.C. and in Alberta in multi-units. We've been seeing a lot of good data come out, which I think is a reflection of the plan that we put in place and ran on.
The budget, which I've coined the “skills, innovation, and infrastructure budget”, takes us in the right direction, in a fiscally responsible manner, but there is something you spoke about at the beginning that I think I would like to hear an elaboration on. It's the importance of lifelong learning, especially with the economy we face and changing technology and so forth. I was wondering if you could elaborate on lifelong learning, its importance to Canadians, and what measures we've put in place in the budget.
Thank you.